Rocket-Setting: An architecture for point-to-point travel Seth A. McKeen 12/18/2012 University of Southern California ; Commercial Concept: Regional Rocket Riding Seth A. McKeen

; Commercial Concept: Regional Rocket Riding Seth A. McKeen  Historic Route – from days by horse and ship  With the Channel Tunnel, created in 1994, 2 hours 15 minutes with Eurostar high speed train  6 Hour Drive (no traffic)  On average 1 – 1.5 Hour Flight Paris to London

; Commercial Concept: Regional Rocket Riding Seth A. McKeen Falcon 9 Separation 63,000 ft Falcon 9 Burnout 56,000 ft Falcon 9 Liftoff Falcon 9 Boost- Back & Powered Landing A 64 person rocket riding vehicle, launched into a ballistic orbit by a reusable Falcon 9 V1.1

; Commercial Concept: Regional Rocket Riding Seth A. McKeen 16 minutes.

 Founded in 2000  CEO John Carmack  Lunar Lander Competitions  Suborbital Research and Tourism  Tested Super Mod Rocket to 4,000 ft + precision landing  Reached >140,000 ft with STIG-A  Founded in 2000  CEO Jeff Bezos  Suborbital/Orbital  New Shepard hit 45,000 ft  Have performed many “Hops”  Founded in 2004  CTO Dave Masten  Lunar Lander Competitions  Suborbital Research  Xaero Reached 1500 ft w/ Precision Landing  Xombie Reached 1600 ft and horizontally moved 2500 ft  Founded in 2002  CEO Elon Musk  Orbital Cargo & Crew  Grasshopper VTVL Testbed  Looking at Fully and Rapidly Reusable Launch Vehicle (Falcon 9 V1.1) for orbital launches. The Vertical Take off Vertical Landing (VTVL) Commercial Scene ; Commercial Concept: Regional Rocket Riding Seth A. McKeen

 Leveraging SpaceX’s fully and rapidly reusable Falcon 9 VTVL rocket technology, a private company could create a standalone passenger vehicle and partner with SpaceX for commercial launches all over the globe  The RLV would send the passenger vehicle on a ballistic trajectory and return to the launch site for refueling; the vehicle would continue on its arc, aero-brake and propulsively land. ; Commercial Concept: Regional Rocket Riding Seth A. McKeen A fully and rapidly reusable rocket means the cost of the rocket is divided up by the number of launches, and the only recurring cost is fuel.  Falcon 9 V1.1 can send ~ 30,000 lbm to LEO from Cape Canaveral SPACEX – VTVL REUSABLE FALCON 9  With less ∆V for suborbital, the payload that can be lofted by F9 V1.1 increases and large scale passenger travel is viable

; Commercial Concept: Regional Rocket Riding Seth A. McKeen The Business of “Hopping Around” SpaceX Parts, UPS, Medical R+D w/ Propulsion Modules Cargo Military/Space Tourism Executive Point-to-Point Travel 32 person vehicle64 person vehicle

; Commercial Concept: Regional Rocket Riding Seth A. McKeen Immediate Cargo Delivery Organ Transplants o The ability to save lives that otherwise may have been lost o Get to small towns from large cities with better hospitals Rapid Delivery o UPS?/FedEx 2 Hour Delivery? o SpaceX Parts to McGregor from Hawthorne?

; Commercial Concept: Regional Rocket Riding Seth A. McKeen  Intercontinental routes are out of the question, as the trajectory will either have an ~ 1200 km apogee, or it will require > 90% of Orbital Velocity  Choosing trajectories with smaller ∆V’s than LEO, will mean significantly greater payload  Weight of passenger vehicle is the payload for F9 V1.1 – for a given trip, there is the ∆V of getting the vehicle on the trajectory, and ∆V of boost-back/landing for F9. Performance and structural mass on F9 are fixed, therefore, payload (i.e. passenger vehicle’s fuel, structure, and cargo/passengers) will vary with range. Want to maximize # of passengers you can take for each range.

 To make this a flourishing business, want to minimize ticket cost so that people can afford it.  To minimize ticket cost, want to maximize passenger capacity (main cost for a launch is fuel).  Baseline passenger vehicle ∆V is that required for control, landing, and potential abort. To get this ∆V, and make tickets cheap, want to maximize engine performance (specific impulse), and maximize payload by minimizing structural weight. ; Commercial Concept: Regional Rocket Riding Seth A. McKeen Highly scalable vehicle architecture allows for interchangeable decks  No vehicle redesign for different ranges (use more decks/passengers for lower range flights – minimize wasted structural mass)  Easily upgrade passenger # for more capable launcher

 Propulsion Module Composed of 4x Carbon fiber-reinforced Carbon (C/C) Truncated Aerospike Nozzles  Higher ISP at all mission conditions (abort, control, landing)  Can be used as primary heat shield (TPS)  Used for abort and landing (a separate abort system is dead weight that can’t be used for payload)  No auxiliary thrust vector control needed (gimbals + actuators)  Overall a huge mass savings which leads to a significantly improved mass ratio ; Commercial Concept: Regional Rocket Riding Seth A. McKeen Courtesy Rocketdyne

; Commercial Concept: Regional Rocket Riding Seth A. McKeen Wait, which way to first class?  Every seat is a window seat – 8 person decks  Ultra streamlined chairs start vertically and come to flight position right before takeoff; fully utilizing volume of the vehicle  Passenger cargo is stored under the nosecone  Life support and environmental control systems are in the ID of each deck  All propulsion systems and avionics are in the floor of the propulsion module

; Commercial Concept: Regional Rocket Riding Seth A. McKeen Passenger Vehicle Comparison 12 ft wide 100 ft long 18 ft Diameter 17.1 ft Diameter Boeing 737 Fuselage 136 Passengers 85 ft long Rocket Riding Passenger Module 64 Passengers Falcon 9 Version 1.1 w/ 5.2 Meter Fairing for GEO/GTO Falcon 9 Version 1.1 w/ Rocket Riding Passenger Vehicle 226 ft long 224 ft long

; Commercial Concept: Regional Rocket Riding Seth A. McKeen Potential Coverage Regions – Europe  Europe could be fully connected – reach any other city in mere minutes.  Almost every major city is within 1200 miles of each other

; Commercial Concept: Regional Rocket Riding Seth A. McKeen Potential Coverage Regions – CONUS  Starting with Southwest / Northeast  Los Angeles to NY/Boston is feasible once technology is matured

; Commercial Concept: Regional Rocket Riding Seth A. McKeen Potential Coverage Regions

; Commercial Concept: Regional Rocket Riding Seth A. McKeen  Potentially a private market, but definitely a need for a government presence. Need a regulatory body to monitor and route traffic, to make sure every launch is allowed and accounted for, and to make sure these vehicles are fully mature, reliable, and safe for operation.  Autonomous GPS driven vehicles, but routing and monitoring can be covered by the FAA and similar governing bodies around the world. What is that, a commercial vehicle or Missile Attack?! Private / Government Relationship

 Merits  Opens up a new, potentially unparalleled market  Incremental – allows for early capital and developmental growth  Using VTVL matures the technologies we’ll use for multi-planetary missions  Use existing airports with added launch pads – keep it simple for the FAA, keep costs down  Limitations  Trading G-Loading vs. Payload (throttle profiles)  The Concord Dilema  FAA Nightmare  GNC Difficulties  Safety/Reliability ; Commercial Concept: Regional Rocket Riding Seth A. McKeen

I’m eager for your questions and comments! Seth A. McKeen Propulsion Development Engineer Space Exploration Technologies Greater Los Angeles Area Aviation & Aerospace LinkedIn (Social Networking)

Sources – Engineering, Architecture and inspiring Design